Its been a long time coming
by cantdrownmydemons22
Summary: Oliver has no idea how to handle the moody teenager next to him in the car. Especially since its his daughter who got suspended from school. Flarrow Slash mentioned.


**AN:** **I actually wrote this forever ago, but forgot about it. I found it again when I was going through old documents. So I dusted it off and post it. Reading through this I don't even know how this got started.**

 **INFO NOTE:** **The name Dawn comes from the Flash comics. This is also set in the wayyy future. The reason for the vague explanation of what got her expelled is because I didn't want to put too much angst in this story since its supposed to be humorous.**

 **-TA-TF-**

Being a masked vigilante in one of the major cities in the world -not to mention running a multi-billion dollar company- Oliver is expected to deal with a lot of things, like trigger-happy criminals and equally trigger-happy, though a lot less psychotic, businessmen. It was to be expected.

Driving his seventeen year old daughter home in the middle of the day after the school suspended her, is not one of those expectations. The island had prepared Oliver for a lot of things in life, except for sitting in a car with one very moody teenager. Dawn had refused to say anything since they left the school and instead sat glaring at the dashboard in the passenger seat. Eventually it was Oliver who broke the silence:

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"Not really."

"Tough luck. I only phrased it as a question." Oliver might feel bad about being too harsh later, but he did not want his daughter to think 'acting out' is okay. Her growing up to be exactly like him and Thea were while they were growing up, is something he'd rather avoid. Dawn didn't appreciate his 'tough love', taking her anger out on her schoolbag, giving it a few kicks.

"Its nothing." She finally answered. Oliver spared her a brief glance.

"Really? Because as far as I know schools don't send students home early over nothing."

"Then its just stupid!" She declared, throwing her arms up in annoyance, looking more like a petulant five-year old than the adolescent she is, "Why couldn't Dad pick me up?"

Oliver hid an amused smirk, knowing exactly why she'd want that. Barry's known as being the 'soft' one. He always buckled whenever Dawn would turn her big, tearful eyes on him. His too-big-for-his-own-good-heart making it impossible to even raise his voice to a cute kid. Even when that kid had somehow gotten into Oliver's office at home -which she knew was off limits- and proceeded to spill grape juice on every document. Or the time she was fourteen and stole the keys to Barry's new car only to drive it a short distance down the driveway into _Oliver's car._ At the time they were lucky she hadn't gotten hurt. Of course Barry's unwillingness left Oliver with dealing out punishments.

Usually the school would call Barry if something happened (One night Barry had jokingly supplied that the school was probably too scared of the 'Big Shot Billionaire' to call him about his troubled daughter), but the speedster had been busy all day, knee deep in a case. (In reality he was knee-deep in snow at the Bank a couple of Rogues targeted)

"Dawn Roberta Queen, explain what happened. Now." Oliver's 'Arrow' voice slipped in slightly. The voice had managed to get the toughest of villains to crack and spill their guts- it should work on seventeen year old girls.

"..."

Seventeen year olds seem to be considerably more tougher than crime lords. Two minutes later and she still refused to talk. Fine, he'll just have to wait her out. He has worked with, dated and married a speedster- his patience is incredible. One of the traits that Dawn got from Barry was his inability to keep quiet for a long period of time. It was at a red traffic light that everything came bursting out.

-TA-TF-

Dawn was full on crying by now. Hot, angry tears ran down her cheeks. Once she had started talking, she couldn't stop, explaining how she had gotten into a fight with another girl in her class. Apparently the two teenagers had never really gotten along and today the other girl started bad-mouthing first Dawn herself, then her parents. They reached the next stoplight, allowing Oliver to wrap his arms around her. She buried her face into his shoulder, seeking comfort. Rubbing her back soothingly with one hand, he wiped her tears with the other.

"I'm sorry-" a tap from the passenger side window interrupted him. Frowning, Oliver looked up. A guy on a black Ducati motorbike was standing outside Dawn's window on the next lane. Oliver tensed, ready to reach for the weapon he keeps in the glove compartment. Dawn straightening up and opening the window, stopped his movements. The helmet slid off, revealing a teenage boy with your typical 'pretty boy' looks.

"Jack!" Dawn cried, clearly surprised. With the back of her hands she hurriedly wiped the tears still rolling down her cheeks. So she knew him. The look on Dawn's face when she looks at him instantly put Jack in Oliver's bad books.

"You're crying. What's wrong?" Jack asked. Dawn blushed, looking down at her fiddling hands. Oliver had to resist the urge to ask him why he wasn't in school at this time of day.

"Oh...uh...bad day." She answered shyly. Unexpectedly she reminded him so much of Barry at the moment.

"Well," Jack flashed a leering smile, making Oliver growl, "Would a ride on the back of a bike cheer the little lady up?"

As Dawn's face lit up: Oliver's fell. There was no way in hell Dawn was getting on-

"Sure!"

-damn. Oliver stopped her before she could get out of the car.

"She's going to have to decline your offer." Oliver stated, his smile coming across more hostile than charming. Dawn, previous state of hysterics forgotten, gave him a bewildered look. She tried reasoning but in the end Oliver refused to let her go. As the light turned green the dejected boy drove on. Immediately Dawn demanded an explanation for his actions.

"Maybe because I'm your father and I'm not about to let you get on a dangerous bike with some strange boy."

" _You_ have a bike and he's not a stranger! His name is Jack."

"I wasn't about to let _Jack_ take you to some seedy place and-" Oliver tried thinking of a word that didn't leave a sick taste on his tongue, "-do _things_ with you." He finished lamely. The look she sent him informed him that Dawn found it lame too.

"Firstly, I've done _things_ before." Dawn helpfully supplied making Oliver groan, "Oh don't act like you didn't know."

"Doesn't mean I like to hear it!" Oliver knew damn well that his little girl was not an innocent saint anymore. It had actually been Roy who caught her in the act of doing it with another student in the Queen's wonderful outdoor hot tub. Both Barry and Oliver were patrolling late that night and she hadn't expected anyone to come home. Roy had been sent to the house by Oliver to make sure that Dawn was fine. When Roy had informed him of the incident Oliver had been fuming. The younger archer had calmly explained that he immediately separated the two and sent the boy home. ("He also won't be coming back anytime soon." Roy said with a fiercely protective gleam in his eye.) In the end it had taken both Thea and Felicity to calm him down. Diggle had wisely kept the bow far out of Oliver's reach. Thea had reasoned that this was bound to happen since she was a teenager with hormones and her parents' considerably good looks. Felicity's input had been a little unsettling, but no less true: "What's done is done. The proverbial cherry has been popped. Nothing you can do now except to tell her to always be safe and stay away from the jerks with a track record."

Oliver winced also remembering Felicity's comment about his daughter being "adventurous". Apparently as a teenager Felicity had never done it in a hot tub. Barry had taken the news a lot more calmly and in the end he was the one to give Dawn The Talk.

"I'm seventeen!" Dawn exclaimed, bringing him out of his thoughts, "in a couple of months I'm eighteen. That practically makes me an adult. I am able to make my own decisions."

"You're not eighteen now. I'm still the parent, which means what I say goes."

Dawn gave a frustrated yell, going back to her earlier brooding. Rolling his eyes, Oliver secretly blamed her over-dramatic tendencies on spending way to much time watching soap opera's with Cisco and Barry. Iris and Thea were a little to blame too.

"You know I liked you better when you were three years old and making grabby-hands with your sticky fingers asking to be picked up." Oliver mumbled, receiving an eye roll in return.

"I still don't see why I couldn't go." There was no real anger or malice behind Dawn's words anymore.

"Because I'd shoot him with an arrow before he even reaches the corner." Oliver stated matter-of-fact. The response was an amused huff and reluctant smile.

 **-TA-TF-**


End file.
